Traveling brings out the best and worst in people. When you add in different customs and cultures mixed with stressed-out and sleep-deprived families, people’s behavior can become interesting and even funny.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve asked people on social media to share stories about odd or interesting behavior they’ve seen from others on vacation. And wow, did I receive a lot of interesting stories!
This post isn’t meant to shame anyone for bad behavior. We’ve all lost our @##$% at some point while traveling, and people have probably shaken their heads at our own odd behavior. But, I hope that these stories will remind you of something you’ve seen or done while traveling and make you laugh.
Hot Heads
Let’s start with people losing their cool.
I must confess, I (Nancy) have lost my cool many times while on vacation. The situation I remember the most was a few years ago when we traveled with our three kids to Colorado. We had rented a car at the airport. The line was so long and moving so slowly that we were waiting for over an hour. My husband was in line and I was dealing with my overtired, hungry, ADHD kids running amok. I finally couldn’t take it any longer and when my husband finally got to the counter I completely lost my cool with the agent. “Why is this taking so long? We’ve been waiting 90 minutes. All of these people have reservations, you shouldn’t be surprised that there are this many people here waiting!” I was red in the face. Thankfully I didn’t swear or do anything YouTube worthy with my rant, but my husband was mortified.
Leana has shared her story about getting into a yelling match with her mom in Russian in the middle of the Family Dollar store.
Amy shares, “In Nassau this trip we saw a woman yelling, hitting, and throwing things at her husband in front of their two small children who were in strollers.”
Entitlement and Looking Out for #1
Many of the tidbits I received from readers deal with people’s entitlement, self-centeredness and just general cluelessness about how their behavior affects other people. For some people, breaking the rules is no big deal. Examples include people pushing ahead of you to exit an airplane, people hogging lounge chairs all day without using them, cruisers saving seats in the theater despite the numerous announcements and guests trashing hotel rooms.
From Toni: “On a long flight from Boston to San Jose, there was a large man taking all the space from his middle row seat, while watching Russian Porn.”
From Julie: “We were visiting one of my bucket list National Parks, trying to enjoy the views, but found ourselves frequently distracted by the people who blatantly break the rules and laws…climbing over railings, and getting too close to wildlife specifically. If these people fall into the river or down the cliff or get attacked by the animal, they are putting others at risk to perform the rescue. It’s still a great view on the right side of the railing and from the safe distance from the animal.” That reminds me of the man who harassed a bison at Yellowstone.
Reposted from a Disney Cruise Line fan (with permission): “In the cruise ship theater during the evening show, someone brought a child’s potty seat into the theater and sat it at the aisle and let the child go. Yep, right there in the aisle. I totally understand the frustration of potty training, but I really could not believe what I saw.” Wow, I cannot imagine hearing the sound of a child whizzing in a portable toilet while I’m trying to enjoy a theater show. Unbelievable!
Inappropriate Stuff
Several readers shared shocking things they’ve seen on cruises and at the beach, and most of it has to do with the level of undress:
“People hanging their laundry to dry on the pool railing of a ship.”
“People walking around in bathrobes and slippers all over ship – with nothing underneath.”
“Well-aged men walking around in Speedos with parts of their giblets out for all to see.”
“In South Padre, I saw an old guy and NO Speedo….all of sagging, wrinkled parts out for all to see. Or the fully nude 80 year old French woman also totally nude in Punta Cana.”
Jennifer shares, “On our honeymoon cruise, Carnival out of Galveston, we saw some folks going through security with a fully inflated ‘adult’ blowup doll. It was rather entertaining watching them get that through the X-ray machine.” Oh my!
From Sarah: “We were in the Bahamas and saw pretty much a Playboy/Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Addition photo shoot by 4 girls, presumably cousins, ranging in age from 15-20 with almost zero swimsuit coverage. Like 98% naked. What made it worse was that the moms and aunties were directing this hyper-sexualized photo shoot. It was beyond gross and made me sad for the state of our civilization. I felt like my kids were watching porn.”
From Alexandra: “I took my kids to a ‘family’ hot spring. About 30 min into our soak, the nudists crashed our party. Nothing like having strangers bits on display for all your kids to see. My 11-year-old is now fully informed on the differences in anatomy between the genders. My husband’s 13-year-old couldn’t pry his eyes away from the females and his 16 year old daughter kept smacking him for staring.”
From Jo: “On my high school trip to Spain, one of the girls didn’t bother to follow any etiquette rules. She used the bidet to wash her underwear and bras then strung a rope across our 3-person shared room and out the window to hang her laundry to dry. The hotel had to ask our teacher to have the items removed.”
Apparently, I was the one who looked inappropriate this summer when I vacationed in Daytona Beach Shores. Just days before my trip, I broke my finger and I had to wear a splint that couldn’t get wet. That’s a real bummer when you’re planning to spend almost a month in the water! Since I wasn’t supposed to take the splint off and I couldn’t get a waterproof cast fitted on my pinky in time for my trip, I purchased a waterproof arm cast cover:
I did get a lot of strange looks, but one man went so far as to tell me that it looked like my arm was wearing a condom!
Out-of-control Kids
Maybe things have changed, but when I was a teen, many of my classmates were out of control on our school-sponsored trips. When I was 14, I went to Spain with a group of fellow Spanish classmates. We were given some freedom in the evenings to explore on our own. One of my quiet friends went wild and proceeded to make out with multiple local boys each night, resulting in a neck full of very visible hickies. The chaperones were not pleased.
From Laura: “We were at Disney World and the lady behind us in line let her son pull it out and pee right there rather than getting out of line. They ended up having to shut down the ride to clean it up, so they didn’t get to go on it anyways.”
Renee writes: “Nothing like hearing an announcement in the airport that the escalators are not toys and parents please mind your child…..it was one of mine!”
This story from Gayle really takes the cake. I mean bacon. “There was a family of 3 – mom, dad and a boy who was 4-5 years old. In the hotel breakfast area, the child would get up suddenly and go grab food off of other people’s plates. Each time, the parents would laugh and mom would say ‘He’s never been on vacation before.’ He took my bacon.”
Oops!
A few years ago, my extended family drove out from Colorado to visit me and my family in Texas. My brother, sister-in-law, nephew, niece, mom and dad rented a van for the long trip.
During a lunch break at a restaurant, my dad needed to use the restroom. Since the others were in process of paying the bill, he told them he would meet them outside at the van.
Apparently, Dad finished up in the bathroom before the rest of the family made it out to the car, so he decided to just wait inside the van. Inside the restaurant, the rest of my family kept hearing a car alarm and saw people running out to their car.
Sure enough, my dad had gotten into the wrong car! The real owners were a bit mad about the fact that their lunch had been interrupted by a rogue old person. Ooops!
I hope you’ve enjoyed these travel anecdotes. If you have a story to share, please add it to the comments!
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Oh my indeed! The post gave me a good chuckle. Your dad’s story reminded me of something that happened to my father-in-law. We were in a drive-thru at a fast food restaurant, and he said he would hop out to use a bathroom. Few minutes later, he comes out and we see him get into a van in front of us. What the what? A second later, he jumps out and we hear a lady screaming. He thought it was his van, even though it was a different color!
On old people and speedos… This is very much a cultural thing. Where I used to live, it would look weird if a guy was NOT wearing a speedo at a beach. I grew up with my male friends, my dad and so on, all wearing speedos. I think I prefer an American way of doing things, but at the time I didn’t think anything of it. We were visiting my family and my second cousin and her husband were showing us photos of their beach vacation in Turkey. I’ve seen more of my cousin-in-law than I cared to see. My husband was giggling like an idiot, and the guy was staring at him wondering why. 🙂
@Leana How funny that your FIL did the same thing! You’re right about speedos being a cultural thing. I see them every time I leave the U.S., along with thong swimsuits.